Fcat Scores Create Teaching Concerns

Students are performing better on Florida standardized writing tests, causing some to question whether exams are too easy and to criticize what they call formulaic teaching methods.

Scores released by the Department of Education last week showed that nearly every tested grade level in every district in the state improved its average score on the writing portion of the high-stakes Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests. The FCAT reading and math scores will be released today .

When the writing test scores were released, Gov. Jeb Bush and Education Commissioner Tom Gallagher said they were considering making the test harder or boosting the score a school needs to pass.

Gallagher noted that the writing scores have steadily increased over seven years.

"Writing is one of the easiest places to move your students up," he said.

The state already has made the grading scale harder for next year's math and reading portions of the FCAT.

Many have expressed concerns about how schools pass the test, saying students are given a virtual template to follow.

Monty Neill, executive director of the Massachusetts-based National Center for Fair and Open Testing, is against what is known in the educational field as "writing to prompts."

"Learning to write to get scores up on a test is not useful in education or for social purposes," said Neill, whose watchdog organization opposes standardized tests.

He criticizes the prevalent teaching method used across the state where teachers focus on writing to test prompts to raise test scores.

"It's a very weak imitation of real writing. To get an adequate score you can plug in a formula so they can know how many paragraphs to write, sentences and transition words," Neill said.

He insists such teaching methods are harmful to students, especially minorities or economically depressed kids. Neill called it a dual school system "mostly inflicted on poor kids because they don't do as well on standardized tests" and whose education is only due to test preparation.

"They are not going to be prepared for college," he said.

This year, according to state officials, only 11 schools statewide failed the writing test. None were in Palm Beach County.

Last year, 167 schools failed that portion of the exam. To pass, students need to score at least a 3 on a grading scale from 1 to 6.

Thomas Fisher, head of Testing and Assessment for the state Department of Education, said the goal is not just for students to get average scores on the test.

"To get a four, you have to elaborate. And so now the trick is, can you get those students to provide an elaborate response," Fisher said.

"Of course, teachers need to be teaching more than how to write a five-paragraph theme," Fisher said.

This year teachers went to extraordinary links to better test scores, especially in schools graded F by the state.

At Indian Pines Elementary in Lake Worth, students gave up fine arts classes and teachers gave up planning periods to work on writing. The school earned a D last year.

Things were even tougher for students at A.A. Dixon and Spencer Bibbs elementary schools in Escambia County, the only two schools in the state deemed chronically failing.

Students were offered taxpayer-funded, private school vouchers or transportation to higher-achieving public schools for the 1999-2000 school year so they wouldn't have to attend Dixon or Bibbs.

Under threat of another failing year, both Pensacola schools focused on writing, the easiest to improve because only 50 percent of students have to meet the state standard for a school to avoid an F.

Students learned to compose a standard five-paragraph essay with an introduction, three supporting paragraphs and a closing.

Writing scores at Dixon and Bibbs skyrocketed this year, but Superintendent Jim May said the improvement came at a price.

The district virtually eliminated fine arts classes for fourth-graders and dropped some social studies and science lessons because they aren't covered on the FCAT.

"We did a better job of teaching the test," he said.

"Everything we do is geared toward teaching FCAT."

Bill Hirschman contributed to this report.

Toni Marshall can be reached at tmarshall@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4550.